# Presbyterian tobacco review



## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Had this sitting around for a while - like many of my recent bowls, the results of a trade with Kelsier. So here goes....

The baggie of Presbyterian that I had needed some time with the magical football of hydration(tm), so in the tank bag it went for a night's rest. Where before I got a slight Latakia note when it was crunchy-dry, after hydrating the tobacco had a slight sweetness to it and little or no Latakia at all. It did have a few darker flakes in the mix, so I know it was there - just not a lot of it, or at least not a lot compared to what I am used to smoking in English blends. It was cut coarse but evenly and packed in the bowl very easily.

Tamper....NPR....Frappuccino (don't judge me - I'm from Washington!).....let's see if there's a witch in there!

Nope - no witch. The bowl lit easily and stayed thus. Almost no Latakia to be found here with a slight sweetness - a very mild tobacco flavor and body-wise. On the retrohale I get almost a Lakeland-like note. Weird - not what I expect at all. No Lakeland has ever touched this pipe or any other part of the process mind you - and the similarity was more of a slight citrus-floral note than "ohmygodi'msmokinggrandma'sperfume," and again only on the retrohale. Between the interesting retrohale and the balanced but slight sweetness this wasn't a bad tobacco. One that you could just about smoke on an empty stomach (which I didn't). One you might sneak smoking in your wife's car (I'll let you know how that goes!  ). This tobacco continued to smoke down to the bottom of the bowl with only the slight tamp or touch-up once or twice in the bowl. I never got a big nic hit, and the tobacco - while it didn't burn as cool as the GL Pease blends I've been smoking of late - didn't get overly hot. Toward the end of the bowl the sweetness and notes on the retrohale faded and I was left with more of a plain tobacco flavor. Not a "you chopped up a lucky strike and stuck it in your pipe" flavor, but plain tobacco.

I let the bowl pretty much extinguish itself, gave it a tamp, and it took of like a champ about halfway through the bowl. I think this probably says more about the ease of smoking Presbyterian than anything else. I am starting to wonder how much of this is due to the hydration and pack of the bowl rather than the tobacco. Guess I'll have to smoke more to figure that out. 

Would I buy Presbyterian and keep it on hand? To be honest, probably not. Not that it isn't a quality tobacco - it absolutely seems to be. Not that it was too one-dimensional - I wouldn't say that either. This blend is just a bit too mild for my tastes at present. The overall flavor profile would seem similar to some of the Rattray's blends, which haven't really spoken to me either. If you like milder blends, give it a shot.


----------



## Zeabed (Apr 23, 2009)

Thanks for the great review. PB used to be one of my favorite mixtures, but not so much lately. It is weaker now and the base tobacco not as good as before. Others I know have noted this change for the worse.


----------

